Washington - Despite looming congressional battles over Social
Security and several controversial appointments to the federal
bench, President Bush appears well on his way to achieving many
of the goals that eluded him during his first term in office.

The president already has signed
legislation requiring class action suits to be filed in federal
court, an important cog in his tort reform agenda. And the Senate
this week passed bankruptcy reform legislation that will make
it more difficult for thousands of filers to protect their assets.
The legislation likely will breeze through the House and land
on Bush's desk within the next few weeks.

The win streak doesn't end
there. It appears increasingly likely that Senate Republicans
will succeed in opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in
Alaska to oil drilling, a crucial component in the president's
touted energy policy. And earlier this month the House approved
legislation permitting religious groups participating in job
training programs to hire individuals based on their beliefs,
a big step in adopting Bush's faith-based initiative.

All of these proposals have
one thing in common - they failed to generate the legislative
enthusiasm necessary to become law during Bush's first term.
And the prospects for all of them seem improved over the next
four years. While everyone's attention is focused on Social Security,
the White House is making progress in other areas.

The president told supporters
in Memphis on Friday, "There's more work to do." He's
pushing for additional tort reform, looking to lawmakers to institute
curbs on lawsuits filed against asbestos companies and limit
pain-and-suffering awards in medical malpractice cases.

"(We) did something on
class-action lawsuits which will help make sure this economy
continues to grow," Bush told supporters in Montgomery,
Ala., on Thursday, during an appearance promoting his Social
Security plan. "I think they're going to get something done
on asbestos. And for the sake of good health care, Congress needs
to get me a medical liability bill so we don't run good doctors
out of practice and run up the cost of medicine."

The reasons behind the president's
run of success can be traced to the 2004 election. Republicans
had a bare majority in the Senate during the 108th Congress and
proved unable to muster the votes for class action reform, bankruptcy
reform and many of Bush's other conservative initiatives. But
the GOP picked up four additional seats in the upper chamber
last November, providing the party with a 55-44-1 edge and some
breathing room.

Republicans also have proved
successful in picking off the support of some conservative Democrats
like Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, who faces a tough re-election
campaign next year in one of the reddest of the red states.

The next big test likely will
focus on ANWR. A measure to permit oil drilling in the 1.5 million
acre wilderness area passed the House in 2003 but failed to survive
a Senate vote. This year, having gained four new GOP seats, the
White House is more optimistic. Republicans intend to include
the drilling provision in the budget bill, meaning it will require
only 51 votes, foiling any Democratic attempt at a filibuster.

"Congress has been debating
this issue now for four years," Bush said in Memphis. "It's
time to stop the rhetoric and stop the debate and get an energy
plan to my desk that will encourage conservation, that will encourage
renewable sources of energy, that will modernize the electricity
grid, that will allow us to explore for oil and gas in environmentally
friendly ways in the United States, that will make us less dependant
on foreign sources of energy."